“Epidaurus is mostly known for its theater which, since ancient times, has been famous for its axcellent acoustics”

In Peloponissos, near the modern-day village of Old Epidaurus on the western shores of the Saronic Gulf lays the Classical city-state of Epidaurus. Epidaurus is mostly known for its theater which, since ancient times, has been famous for itsacoustics. The theater is one of the architectural structures located in the area of the Sanctuary of Asklepieion at Epidaurus.

Theatre of Epidaurus

In the peaceful hinterland of Epidaurus, with its mild climate and abundant mineral springs, is the sanctuary of the god-physician Asklepios, the most famous healing centre of the Greek and Roman world. The sanctuary belonged to the small coastal town of Epidaurus, but its fame and recognition quickly spread beyond the limits of the Argolis. It is considered the birthplace of medicine and is thought to have had more than two hundred dependent spas in the eastern Mediterranean. Its monuments, true masterpieces of ancient Greek art, are a precious testimony to the practice of medicine in antiquity. Indeed they illustrate the development of medicine from the time when healing depended solely on the god until systematic description of cases and the gradual accumulation of knowledge and experience turned it into a science.

The area was devoted to the cult of healing deities since Prehistory. A Mycenaean sanctuary dedicated to a healing goddess stands on the Kynortion hill, northeast of the theatre. It was founded in the sixteenth century BC over the remains of a settlement of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2800-1800 BC), and functioned until the eleventh century BC. Unlike other sanctuaries of this period, it is unusually large. This early sanctuary was replaced c. 800 BC by another, dedicated to Apollo, a god with healing abilities, worshipped here as Apollo Maleatas. The worship of Asklepios, the sanctuary’s main healing god, traditionally considered as the indigenous son of Apollo and Koronis, granddaughter of Malos, king of Epidaurus, was established in the sixth century BC. Asklepios, protector of human health and personal happiness, was a very popular deity with an ever-increasing number of worshippers.

The Treasury of Atreusin

The sanctuary at Kynortion was quickly overwhelmed by a great number of visitors, so a new sanctuary was founded in the plain, approximately one kilometre northwest of Kynortion Hill, on the site where, according to the myth, Asklepios was born. The two sanctuaries, one dedicated to Apollo Maleatas and the other to Asklepios, were subsequently known under the common name of ‘Sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas and Asklepios’.

The new sanctuary developed around the Sacred Well, which was later incorporated into the portico of the Abaton, and in the area of Building E, where the first ash altar and the site of ritual feasting were located. The well played an important role in the healing process, which included cleansing and enkoimesis, or hypnosis, of the patients near its waters. The enkoimesis emulated the periodical death and rebirth of divine powers after they returned inside the earth – the source of life. The god appeared to a patient during his enkoimesis, which corresponded to periodic death, advising him on the treatment he should follow.

Continuous warfare and misery in the fourth and third centuries BC led people to seek even more the protection and help from Asklepios, the philanthropist god, making the sanctuary one of the richest of its time. Several important buildings were erected in both the mountain and plain sanctuaries during this period: the Classical temple, the altar of Apollo, the Great Stoa, the priests’ residence and the Temenos of the Muses in the former; the temple of Asklepios, the Abaton, the Tholos, the theatre, the stadium, the Banqueting Hall and the hostel in the latter.

Temple of Asclepius

The Asklepion suffered from the raids of Sulla and of Cilician pirates in the first century BC, but flourished again in Imperial times and particularly in the second half of the second century AD, when the Roman consul Antonine financed the refurbishment of old buildings and the construction of new ones. Pausanias visited the sanctuary and admired its monuments, which he described in detail (2, 26), during this period. In the following centuries the sanctuary was razed several times and suffered particularly under the Goths in 267 AD. In the mid-fourth century BC, the plain sanctuary was refurbished one last time and a portico connecting many of the existing buildings was constructed at its centre according to Roman fashion. Despite the 426 AD official ban on ancient pagan religions, worship continued in the sanctuary until it was abandoned following the destructive earthquakes of 522 and 551 AD.

Archaeological Museum of Epidaurus is noted for its reconstructions of temples and its columns and inscriptions, was established in 1902 and opened in 1909 to display artifacts unearthed in the ancient site of Epidaurus in the surrounding area.
The museum contains a number of large reconstructions of temples and architectural components, particularly those found at the Asklepieion. Of major note is the reconstruction of part of the entablature and Doric columns of the Temple of Asklepios dated to 380-375 B.C. and reconstruction of part of the entablature of the Temple of Artemis, dated to 370-310 B.C. There is also an extensive reconstruction of the entablature and part of the inner Corinthian colonnade of the Propylaia dated to 300 B.C. The museum also has a Corinthian capital which was unearthed below the foundations of the Tholos temple; that temple is believed to be designed by Polykleitos the Younger.

Funeral diadem of Mycenae Museum

The Archaeological Museum of Epidaurus has a substantial collection of inscriptions and Greek and Roman sculptures. The museum has a plaster cast Statue of Asklepios, with a sacred snake curling up on his stick. It is a copy of the original statue unearthed in Epidaurus and which is exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Also of note is a marble headless statue, believed to be of the health goddess Hygeia dated to the Hellenistic period and a statuette of a child. The Archaeological Museum of Epidaurus has a collection of votive inscriptions and perirrhanteria, displayed at the facade of the inscriptions hall. There is a fragment of a votive relief and Doric metopes, which are decorated with relief scenes, one of which depicts Asklepios and Athena and are dated to the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. A lily from the ceiling of the Tholos decorates one of the coffers of the ceiling of the external Doric colonnade of the Tholos which is dated to 360-330 B.C.

The Archaeological Museum of Epidaurus also displays bronze medical instruments providing an informative insight into medical practice at the sanctuary of Asklepios. Another notable display are the fossils unearthed at Epidaurus and other places in Greece, an array of minerals found in the area of Lavrio, and a collection of ancient ammonites which are believed to be over 240 million years old.

Additional Information
Location: 145,00 km from Athens

It is famous about
Sanctuary of Asklepieion
Theatre of Epidaurus